It's the Little Things...

The day started when Cam phoned me and asked if I was awake. I told him "no."

But he invited me to go shopping with him, and I needed chicken and chocolate chip cookie fixings, so I agreed.

After a successful foray into grocery shopping (for me anyway. Cam was looking for green thread to sew his St. Patrick's Day vest.), which included non-wonder bread (Mike says he only buys wonderbread because it contains so many preservatives that it doesn't go mouldy as fast), I came back to the apartment to get Mike so we could take the trek to Children's Hospital.

So, apparently, I'm supposed to take Bus 25 tomorrow morning. It wasn't difficult to find, which is great, because I've never been relaxed when it comes to taking buses for the first time (read: I'm paranoid of somehow getting lost).

I took the quick tour of the Adolescent Mental Health Ward today. I was greeted at the door by a big guy named Charles who asked me to wait outside for a few minutes because there was a kid inside who was doing his best to get out. (thought I didn't find that out until later). I think I'm going to be OK to start tomorrow at 7am (ick), and everyone there seemed really friendly. I haven't done any "time" with youth and Mental Health, though I have been working at the Mental Health facility in Kamloops. We'll see how it goes!

But the highlight of my day happened on the bus on the way home from the hospital. A woman riding the bus - who appeared to have cognition defecits - stood up and clearly looked concrened. She tried to talk to the bus driver who inored her. Then, she started asking around to other bus riders. She was saying that she couldn't figure out where she was and couldn't remember where she lived and nobody would help her. I tried to help her, though I didn't know the area at all. She didn't appear to have any address information in her wallet. I couldn't help her because I barely knew where I was myself.

There was, however, one woman who decided she would help. She tried talking to the bus driver (who first told her to "step back of the Red Line", and ignored her for a while, too), and then decided to ride the bus and get this woman home. I'm quite sure that she went, literally, far out of her way in order to help this woman. She sat with her, and talked to her about what she might want to carry with her to help prevent her getting lost again. Then she got off the bus with her at UBC to try and start the journey over again. It was then that I stopped her and told her that I thought she was doing a really kind thing today. I told her that I thought it was important to recognize when people are doing good deeds. The lost woman gave me a hug. It was nice.

So, I made curry with rice tonight. Yum. Wish me luck tomorrow!